Transcript

The works of George Orwell, C.S. Lewis and Tolkien have arguably more influence today than when they were first published. 1984, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings have also been turned into movies as has that other icon of British fiction: Harry Potter.

This is Leadenhall Market, an old-fashioned Victorian market that's still popular today, and I've been told that if I walk over here, something rather magical will happen... because this is also the location of Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter films where wizards come shopping.

Evanesco!

…..

The Harry Potter films were adapted from the children’s novels of J.K. Rowling. She is a world-class leader in modern literature and one of the most successful authors of her generation. Over 450 million copies of the Harry Potter books have sold throughout the world. They’ve been translated into 72 different languages.

Amanda Craig is a novelist and The Times critic for children’s literature.

Richard: Amanda, what impact has J.K. Rowling had on literature?

Amanda: I think above all she's reminded the world that the British are great storytellers. She's made people in every country laugh, cry and sit on the edge of their seats.

Richard: What about other British authors, then?

Amanda: Well, there are fantastic children's authors, like Philip Pullman, whose Dark Materials trilogy I'm sure will be familiar, and Anthony Horowitz, who reinvented the James Bond spy novel for teenagers, and for younger children, there's Cressida Cowell's How to Train your Dragon. All of these are fantastic stories.

Richard: Why is Britain such a breeding ground for writing talent?

Amanda: Well, we've had over 200 years of practice at the novel and 600 years at the play. We've got people like Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare to draw upon, we've got the wonderful English language and I think we are full of curiosity about other people. We want to entertain them, we want to make them laugh, we want to make them feel shivers up their spine. We just love literature.

.....

Well, I’m excited about the classics and the future of modern British literature. They say there’s a book in everyone and I feel so inspired, I'm going to start writing straight away. I just need a pen...

Yes, that is certainly possible. Which form is correct depends on the context. For example, in a news article about how the trilogy recently won many prizes, 'has won' would be more likely. But if you're speaking about how it won many prizes in a time that is conceived of as finished, 'won' would be more likely. You can read more about this on our talking about the past page.

Hi
thank you for these interesting clip
I would like to know why all the three tenses (simple past , present and past perfect) could be used, interchangeably, in task 4 {including the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 2002 - the first time the prize was given /has been given /had been given}

The perfective is not a tense. We describe it as an aspect and it describes how the time of the action is seen by the speaker - as complete or not, as in progress or not, as permanent or temporary, as an isolated action or one related to another and so on. This means that we often have a choice of how to describe a given action depending on how we see it. For example, both of these sentences are possible:

I live in London. [present simple]

I've lived in London for 10 years. [present with perfective aspect - present perfect]

The difference is what the speaker chooses to emphasise. In the first sentence the speaker is stating a bare fact without any other information. In the second sentence the speaker sees that fact as an unfinished process which continues into the present from the past. The fact is the same but the speaker gives it a different emphasis by choosing to use a particular aspect.

There are several options in your particular example for the same reason:

including the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 2002 the first time the prize was given to a children's book.

The speaker is simply relating a fact about the prize in 2002.

including the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 2002 the first time the prize has been given to a children's book.

The speaker is now telling us not just that the prize was given, but that it has still (today, at the time of speaking) never been given again to a children's book. The present perfect tells us that the action described (being given for the first/only time) is still true today.

including the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 2002 the first time the prize had been given to a children's book.

The past perfect tells us that the action described (being given for the first/only time) was true at the time but may not be true now. There is no difference in fact between this form and the past simple (above) in this context; the choice is really a stylistic one.

Hello Team.
Help me with this, please.
In the Task IV :
" For the past forty years, Philip Pullman [has enchanted] young people with his fantasy novels. He [has written] over twenty children's novels, but [is] best known for his trilogy, his Dark Materials, which [has sold] over fifteen million copies to date.
My question is ; Don't you think the last essay will be appropriate in passive form?
" which [has been sold] over fifteen million copies to date".
Is my opinion wrong?

I'm afraid the version of the sentence you suggest is not correct, but if you really wanted to use a passive form you could say '15m copies have been sold to date'. In any case, I can see how the sentence from the video must look strange to you, but it actually is correct. The verb 'sell' (see the second definition in the first entry) can be used intransitively, and that is how it is used here.

I think that Harry Poter is so good because all the story happens in a parallel world, where i can see a mixture of fantasy and reality. These kind of story activate our imagination and brings more pleasure on the reading.
I think that i couldn't write a novel, because i am better with numbers than words.

Hello :)
I would like to know if the best French translation about " sit on the edge of their seats" would be "coller au siège"? I thought the way of these expressions are a bit different but have the same idea...is it right? or wrong?...

I'm afraid that this is a service we don't provide. In any case, there is no-one currently on our team who knows French well enough to help you with this. You might want to consider the Cambridge English-French Dictionary, which might have some useful examples in it for you.